


How To Become A Team: A Guide by Owen Strand

by soclosebutyetsofar



Series: 9-1-1 Lone Star Week 2020 [1]
Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Day 1, Fire Fam - Freeform, Gen, Lone Star Week 2020, Team Bonding, Team as Family, family theme
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:33:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23980870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soclosebutyetsofar/pseuds/soclosebutyetsofar
Summary: Day 1 of 9-1-1 Lone Star Week 2020 is here!!Owen makes the 126 do some team exercises to strengthen their bond shortly after they start working together.
Series: 9-1-1 Lone Star Week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1729090
Comments: 4
Kudos: 53
Collections: 9-1-1 Lone Star Week





	How To Become A Team: A Guide by Owen Strand

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, so this is the first fic in English that I published. English isn't my first language so you might want to keep that in mind while reading. I really hope you enjoy this fic though. Cross posted to Tumblr.
> 
> Theme was family and the prompt was "I get to start something new with you". I took it quite literal. 
> 
> Also a big shout out to @spacedoutlesbian on Tumblr for proof reading. Thank you so much. You’re a star! <3  
> All remaining mistakes are mine.

“What’s going on?” Judd asks as soon as he gets out of his car. Everyone else from the 126 is already there and are watching Owen expectantly. 

“Nice of you to show up, Judd. You’re late.” Owen says by way of greeting him.

“Sorry, Cap, but I wasn’t sure I had heard right when you asked us to meet _here_.” Here being the middle of nowhere. Owen chose the location carefully, not wanting any interruptions for what he has planned with the new crew. 

“Well, you did, so if you’d please get over here and listen to what I have to say.” The Probie grins and tries to stifle his laughter behind one hand but Judd slaps him on the back of his head nonetheless. It’s a gentle slap of course, but Mateo still looks at him angrily until Marjan elbows him in the side. 

“If you’re ready then…?” Owen asks sarcastically. Eight pairs of eyes look at him.

“Great, I called you here to work on and improve our teamwork. We’ve been working together for a month now and I want to strengthen our bond, I want us to become a family and I know that it isn’t just going to happen overnight and that it’s a process. **I get to start something new with you,** and I want us all to feel comfortable and relaxed in each other’s presence. Which is why we’re going to do some teamwork exercises.”

A collective groan goes through the group. TK throws him an annoyed glance. He can’t really decide whether it’s because of the exercises or because of the group’s negative reaction. He hopes it’s the former but knowing his son, he can’t say for sure. Nevertheless, Owen silently pleads for TK to be patient and to play along. He may end up needing his son’s support. TK visibly sighs but nods in agreement. The others’ mood hasn’t gotten any better. Owen sighs, it always starts in the same way. Usually people are against it before it even properly starts. That’s nothing new. He just has to give them some time to accept that it might not be as bad as they think.

“Why don’t we just carry on going out for drinks?” the Probie aks. Owen can hear a few chuckles and quiet agreements.

“Because we need to learn to _communicate_ with each other not just _talk_ to each other.” Owen argues. He can see Paul and Marjan nodding their heads in agreement. Judd scowls but doesn’t say anything else and the Probie just looks confused. TK remains silent but Owen counts it as a win. 

“I think it’s a great idea” Michelle pipes up. She winks at him as Nancy and Tim hum in agreement. 

“Thank you, Captain Blake. As I was saying, it’s time for us to bond on a level that enhances our ability to work together. A visit to a bar won’t help with that” 

“So, what are we gonna do, Cap?” Paul asks.

“Right, I actually have two exercises I want to do with you. And before you ask, yes, I _will_ join you. After all, I’m part of the team _too_. Anyways, the first one is called “Gordian Knot”. Has anybody heard of it?”

Everyone except TK shakes their head. Back in New York, whenever there was a new member to the team, Owen made them do this or something similar . As a result, TK knows the deal which is why Owen asked him to keep silent and let the others do most of the work, at least until they figured out how to approach the task. 

“Then I’ll l explain it to you. First, please stand in a circle, shoulder to shoulder. Stand really close to each other” he instructs. The team hesitate a little but ultimately do as requested. 

“Now close your eyes” this doesn’t meet much approval among the group. 

“C’mon guys, take a deep breath and close your eyes. Nothing bad is going to happen. I’ll do it, too. You’re not alone in this.” One after the other, the team closes their eyes. Owen cheats a little to make sure that no one is lying. But he realises that he needn’t have worried. Everyone is doing as asked. So he closes his eyes. 

“Now I want you to lift your right arm. Has everyone done it? Tell me” He hears everyone answer the question in the affirmative. 

“Perfect! You’re doing so well guys! Next, I want you to grab someone’s hand.

"Anybody, doesn’t matter who, just grab the next hand that you can. Is everyone holding a hand? Answer me.” He hears a chorus of yeses. 

“Great, now lift your left arm and repeat. Keep your eyes closed guys. Is everyone holding two hands now?” 

“No” he hears who he thinks is Tim. All the other answers are yes.

“Ok, so we’ll try again, everyone let go of the person’s hand you are holding onto with your left. Take down your arm but keep your eyes closed. Now lift the arm again and find a hand.” Owen gives the team some time.

“What now? Does everyone have a hand?” This time the only answer is yes.

“Perfect! Now open your eyes please” He opens his and looks around, seeing the tangle of arms. He now has Paul’s hand in his left and Marjan’s in his right.

“That looks good guys. It’ll be fun”

“What now, Cap?” the Probie asks. His arms are crossed with TK’s in his left and Nancy on his right, despite their being on opposite sides. Owen grins. _Oh yeah, this will be fun_. 

“Now, we’ve got to untangle ourselves. The aim is to be in a circle standing next to the people whose hands you’re holding at the moment. And under no circumstances can you let go of the hands you’re holding. Before we start, there is one complication. We’re not allowed to talk, understood?” He thinks he sees an eyeroll here or there but nobody’s complaining anymore so he counts it as a win. 

“But Cap, I thought this was about communicating better. How are we gonna do that if we can’t talk?” the Probie pipes up again.

“You can communicate without words, Probie. It’s all about body language and miming” Paul answers for him.

“That’s right. Imagine we’re on a call, the radios don’t work anymore and we’re too far away from each other. We would then have to rely on gestures and other non-verbal signals. Does that answer your question, Mateo?” He nods.

“Good, are there any more questions?” The crew shake their heads.

“Perfect. Let’s do this then! Since TK and I have already done this we’ll l take a step back and let you guys take over, but we’ll still be participating and help to loosen the knot.”

It’s a little chaotic at first, everyone is eager to get out of the tangle of arms as quickly as possible and therefore are almost making the situation worse. They each have their own way in mind and barely look at each other before moving. He exchanges a glance with his son. TK shrugs, a smirk playing at his lips. They’ve both seen it go that way too many times before. It takes some time but finally they slow down and start to look at each other. Paul points his chin in a certain direction and Marjan climbs over a set of arms. Michelle nods her head sideways and either Nancy or Tim jumps to oblige her and crawl beneath connected hands. Judd only tugs at Marjan’s arm (he uses so much strength that she stumbles in his direction) to guide her in a certain direction. Owen’s been told various times that Probie is a little slow on the uptake, but he takes his tasks very seriously and it shows yet again. Owen is glad he decided to get him to join his new crew. The team in general does a good job after a slow start. They bump into each other on occasion which makes them laugh. Their annoyance seems to disappear gradually and is replaced by enjoyment. After 15 minutes they stand in a full circle, everyone holding their neighbour’s hands and no knot. 

“Well done guys! I’m very proud of you for accomplishing this task. Go on, give yourselves and each other a round of applause.” The 126 claps for themselves. _Finally_ , he thinks, the tension seems to have broken. 

“So how did you feel about that guys?” he wants to make sure that no one had to anything that made them too uncomfortable. 

“That was a lot of fun” Mateo says, as Paul and Marjan nod in agreement. 

“Judd?” Owen inquires.

“Yeah, I guess it was alright” he relents. Knowing Judd as much (or little, really) as he does, Owen guesses that this is as much approval as he can get out of the other man. 

“Well then, let’s do it again” he receives confused glances from more than one of the team.

“Let me explain. We’re going to do it a little differently this time around. You’ve developed a solution for the problem or rather a _way to solve_ this problem. Which is why the problem will be a little different this time around, so you’ll be challenged again. This time Captain Blake, Judd and Paul will be blindfolded on top of not being allowed to talk” The team remain silent, as the the three he just named exchange uneasy glances. 

“Do you feel like you’ll be able to do that?” he needs their confirmation. While he wants to challenge his crew , he definitely doesn’t want them to be pressured. 

“This is about challenging ourselves and putting trust in each other, right?” Paul asks. Owen nods. “Then yeah, I can do it” he assures Owen. 

“Great, glad to hear that. Judd? Michelle? What about you?”

“I’m in” Michelle replies. He looks at Judd who only grunts but ultimately nods.

“Perfect” he walks over to his bag and gets three out, handing them to the three and returning to the circle. When they’ve put them on, he tells the team to start. 

“Everyone remember the steps? Perfect! Let’s do this then!” Owen encourages the group. The second time goes more smoothly than the first despite Michelle, Judd and Paul being blindfolded. Owen chose them on purpose: Michelle is the Paramedic Captain and Judd is his second in command. They are both the type to lead and did so in the last round. Paul can be too perceptive for his own good with his observational skills, therefore earning himself a spot on the blindfolded team. One of Owen’s goals is to take them away so that the group finds a way to work around them and accomplish the goal without a leader’s help. The other is to show the leaders that they can count on their team as much as the team relies on them. After a hesitant, start the team definitely manages to pull that off, Owen realises with relief. They just work around the three until one of them has to step over a pair of arms or turn around which they accomplish by gently touching the body part that the person has to lift or move. Owen has to laugh a little when they stand in a perfect circle with no tangled arms. Nancy has her back to the inside of the circle, facing away from all of them. It still counts though. The group lets go of each other and Paul, Michelle and Judd remove their blindfolds. Without having to tell them, they break out into an applause.

“Well done, you guys!” he praises the team. “So, can you share what you thought of this round?”

“I wasn’t scared, I trust everyone here” Michelle speaks up first.

“I’m just glad we didn’t do trust falls” Judd quips but there’s no heat behind it. Owen looks at him, encouraging Judd to continue sharing his opinion on the task. “Fine, it was alright I guess” but there’s a hint of a smile on his lips. Owen knows that out of all of them this is probably the hardest for Judd. He knows what it’s like to lose your entire crew, your family. He knows what survivor’s guilt feels like and how difficult it is to trust others, people you barely know, as much as those that you’ve lost. He’s glad Judd’s trying. So he lets go and doesn’t try to put any more pressure on him. 

“You’ve done great so far. We’ll have half an hour for lunch before we do the second exercise I’ve brought for you” They all sit down in a big circle, everyone unpacking the lunches they’ve brought for themselves after Owen told them to do so. Conversations arise between different people. In general, there’s a very relaxed atmosphere that surrounds the group. After the break, Owen encourages the group to get up again.

“Now that we’re recharged ourselves with food, there’s another issues I want to tackle today: the issue of communicating with words. The next exercise is called “The perfect square”. It’s a little different than the task before. With this one you are allowed to talk but you won’t be able to see anything as you will be blindfolded. All of you” He starts distributing the blindfolds.

“Kinky” Michelle mumbles and sends him a wink when he stands in front of her. He falters for a moment. 

“Ah, yes, well, what I meant to say was that now we have to rely on words and how exactly we’re expressing ourselves. As I said none of us will be able to see anything. I have this rope here and as you can see, the ends are tied together so it’s forming a ring. Please stand in a circle again” The team complies willingly this time. They seem curious about the new task. _Good_ , Owen thinks to himself. “Now y’all hold on to the rope and put it on the ground so it forms a circle.” He hands the rope to Marjan to his left and TK to his right until everyone holds a bit of it in his hands. “Well done!” Owen compliments once they followed his instructions. “Next put on the blindfold and take a couple of steps back.” He observes the crew and nods to himself when he sees that everyone does as requested. 

“Everyone still doing okay?” A chorus of yesses can be heard. 

“That’s amazing. So, what I want us to do is the following: we’ll try to form a square with the rope. We can talk but obviously can’t see anything. Nevertheless, we have to try and get it done as perfectly as possible. I’m going to set a timer for 10 minutes. Once my phone goes off, we’ll put down the rope and take off our blindfolds to see if we came close to the goal. If you think we’re ready before that- even better. Now you might think this is easy but please do not underestimate this exercise. It’s more difficult than it sounds” he adds. Owen takes out his phone and sets the timer. He presses start and quickly puts on his own blindfold. “Let’s go, 126!” he yells. At first some of the team yell “here’s a corner”. But there are too many of the team who do so. They quickly realise that this tactic won’t cut it.

“We have to choose four people to be the corners!” Marjan suggests.

“That sounds like a great plan Marwani, but how do you suggest we decide who it’s going to be? We can’t have people be a “corner” just to realise that they’re standing next to each other. It won’t work that way” Paul argues. Marjan doesn’t answer, but Nancy does.

“Well, that shouldn’t be too complicated, right? We just have to remember who’s standing next to each other.” It’s funny listening to the crew try to remember who’s their neighbour so they can determine where it’s best to put one of the “corners”.

“Ok, so, Marjan, Judd, Tim and TK will be a corner” Nancy sums up their results.

“Let’s try this then”

“Wait what’s happening?” Tim asks. He sounds a little lost.

“We have to get the rope now” TK explains taking pity on the paramedic. Owen makes a few steps forward, bowing over and skims the ground until he can feel it. He grabs ahold but doesn’t get up yet. 

“Does everyone have a hand on the rope?” Paul asks.

“No!” 

“I don’t!” 

“Me neither” 

Owen can hear a few people protesting. 

“Everyone put the rope down again. We can only lift it up when everyone has it in their hands. Otherwise we’ll pull it away from some.” his son explains. It takes a couple of minutes but eventually everyone has it in their hands, which they confirm verbally. After that there’s a babble of voices as everyone tries to get their point across. 

“Wait, who did we say was going to be a corner?” Mateo asks.

“Marjan, Judd, Tim and TK” Paul repeats. The voices rise again but somehow they manage to come to a point where the majority agrees that they’ve been successful. The alarm hasn’t rung yet much to his surprise.

“Take off the blindfold then” Owen instructs. Team member after team member starts laughing. Owen takes off his blindfold as well and immediately recognizes the reason for their amusement. He doesn’t know if there’s even a word for the shape the group has managed to create.

“Not the result we wanted but definitely creative” he comments. Some of the 126 look dissatisfied, others have a smile on their face.

“Don’t worry, you get a chance to do it again. Just like before, we will do a second round with this task. Only this time we choose at least two people who can’t talk.” They all look at each other. It’s s clear from their body language that none of them want to be blindfolded. Owen remains silent. He wants them to come to a solution without his guidance. 

“I’ll do it” Marjan is the first.

“Then I’ll do it, too!” the Probie says.

“Great, well done, guys!” Owen says.

“Me, too!” Tim says and smiles timidly. Owen is proud. Tim struggled the most on the first go around. 

“Well, that settles it then. I’m proud of you guys for stepping forward and volunteering. Also to make this even more complicated, we’re going to switch positions” The group mixes up and then repeats the steps until they are holding the rope in their hands. Owen decides to forego the timer this time around to take the pressure off of them.

“One way we could do it is, if those who will be the corner grab the rope with their hands a few inches apart and physically form a corner” Paul suggests.

“I don’t understand” Judd complains and Owen thinks he can hear TK snicker. Paul sighs and starts to explain once again. The exercise continues in the same way. After God knows how long the team decides that they’ve managed to pull it off this time and agree to take their blindfolds off. Turns out the results are… not a square - again. But the team is laughing and Owen has the feeling that they are a lot more comfortable around each other than they had been at the start of the day. They laugh with each other and try to find out what they did wrong.

“Can I get your attention please!” he yells and the conversations stop as the team turn to him. “I can understand if you think that the latest exercise was a failure but let me tell you: it wasn’t. We may not have managed to form a perfect square, but we’ve had fun. We learned how to talk to each other more directly and more clearly and that’s huge progress in itself. I’m proud of you. As I said, **I get to start something new with you** and I want to do it right. I want to do right by you guys. You’re my team, my responsibility and I hope that you become my family and I become yours” he looks everyone into the eyes. The second to last is Judd who nods at him respectfully. Lastly, his eyes meet his son’s. TK has a smile on his face. He mouths the words _I am proud of you, I love you_ and Owen beams. This was the first step of becoming a functional team. He’s glad both he and TK can have a second chance and begin something new with these people in line with the motto: “When life gives you lemons make lemonade”.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on Tumblr ;)  
> The handle is the same!


End file.
